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We hope you’ve had a chance to check out the new podcast from 89.3 WFPL News and Louisville Public Media — it’s called Five Things and it debuted a couple of weeks ago. Each week, I invite a guest to choose five important things — physical objects — from his or her life, and we get to learn about the guest’s life story through those objects.

This week, my guest is dancer Wendy Whelan, a Louisville native who spent 30 years with New York City Ballet, before retiring in 2014 and making her way in the world of contemporary dance. I was curious to know more about this woman who has spent so much of her life in an extremely disciplined art form, and who chose to walk away from the classical tradition and continue exploring.

She’ll be in town on October 24 for an event called “Wendy Whelan — To the Point: A Conversation with Emily Bingham,” presented by Kentucky to the World, in collaboration with the Kentucky Center. In this excerpt from the podcast, Wendy tells us about a very special pair of pointe shoes. Listen the audio in the player above.

Subscribe to Five Things wherever you get your podcasts – we’ve got a new episode for you every Thursday.